The Department of Justice said on Monday that it is investigating the police department of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and one of the poorest and most crime-plagued in the country, after allegations that officers have used excessive force, retaliated against citizens and engaged in other wrongdoing.
The inquiry will try to determine whether some Newark officers have been guilty of “systemic violations of the constitution or federal law,” the DOJ said in a three-paragraph statement that notes that the DOJ has undertaken similar reviews of other law enforcement agencies “both large and small” in other regions.
“Our goal is to conduct a fair, thorough and independent review and find the truth,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division, said. “We will follow the facts where they lead us.” He added, “We do not prejudge our investigations.”
The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, said the probe will look into allegations of excessive force, discriminatory policing and poor treatment of detainees in holding cells, The Associated Press reported. Investigators will also try to determine whether officers have retaliated against those who legally observe, or record, police activity, The AP said.
Mayor Cory Booker said he welcomed the inquiry, according to The AP.
The Newark police force, now about 1,300 officers, has been accused of a wide range of abuses, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to petition the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division last September to investigate the department. At the time, a city spokeswoman called the ACLU request “frivolous,” but the ACLU cited dozens of instances of suspected abuse — including some that caused the city to pay millions of dollars in damages.
Many of the suspected abuses predate the tenure of Garry McCarthy, Newark police director since 2006, who has been selected by incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be police superintendent of the nation’s third-largest city. (Deputy Chief Samuel DeMaio has been named acting police director in Newark.)
Like many other cities, Newark has suffered from a declining population and poverty. About 440,000 people lived in Newark in the middle of the Twentieth Century; now, the figure is well under 300,000. Several Newark mayors have been implicated in corruption. And in the summer of 1967, Newark was torn by racial disturbances that killed two dozen people, caused millions of dollars in damage and left a permanent scar on the city’s image.
The DOJ has also investigated the New Orleans police, finding that the force has been guilty of “unconstitutional conduct,” and is probing the Seattle Police Department.
